Category: What If…

Or maybe more appropriately, what’s next with cannabis? What do we think cannabis retail will look like 10 years from now? Right now, growers, investors, brands and consumers are all trying to figure out how to approach the legal sale of cannabis at retail in the U.S. Think about it. We’re in the infancy of...

If you didn’t have a prototype store, shopping would be better for all of us. Without the need for cookie cutter stores locked into three main store sizes, all stores would be more interesting. Local artisans would rejoice, because there would be more stores that would carry their goods. The startup culture would flourish even...

What if all of our predictions for 2019 come true? We guarantee that … it’s very unlikely they all come true. But we’d be surprised if they all don’t partially play out over the next 365 days. Why are we so confident? Well, some of these predictions have already started, but we’re expecting the intensity...

In a not so distant past, holiday shopping was fun. Friends and family made a tradition out of it. Groups would take a Saturday or Sunday and head to their favorite malls. They’d spend the day there and go to their favorite restaurant for dinner to recap the day and cross off a bunch of...

Nearly 80,000 empty buildings and endless more trained banking professionals without a job. But the effect on consumers could be even more dramatic. Most money-related banking interactions could transition relatively seamlessly in a branchless, increasingly cashless world. These are the bill pays, account transfers and check deposits that don’t require much thought. Most savvy consumers...

With the Whole Foods merger complete and Prime members receiving exclusive discounts as a part of the new Whole Foods loyalty program, the recent Amazon acquisition seems to be a success (at least for some). The seamless integration of these two seemingly opposite brands has many asking who is next on the Amazon’s shopping list....